Melania Trump, fresh off new polling that showsshe’s America’s least-popular first lady, has come out of nowhere and positioned herself to be PresidentDonald Trump’s least-popular wife.
With no advance notice or even context, the usually invisible first lady materialized on April 9 and gave a statement at the White House,distancing herself from the Jeffrey Epstein scandalthat has plagued the Trump administration.
You remember the Epstein files, right? They were the subject of all the “notorious child sex trafficking” headlines President Trump tried tobomb out of existence by starting a war with Iran.
If I’m being honest, the war gambit kind of worked. News about the Epstein files and Trump’s connection therein had largely subsided, making way for news about Trump’s incalculably dumb idea to start a war in the Middle East.
The president used the cover of war totoss Pam Bondi into the attorney general waste bin, unhappy with how she failed to contain the Epstein scandal. He replaced her with his former personal attorney, a guywho once said partying with Epstein‒ a convicted sex offender who died in prison awaiting a sex trafficking trial ‒ was no big deal.
All that noise about Trump’s name appearing repeatedly in the Epstein files had quieted down, drowned out by hollering oversoaring gas pricesand the occasionalpresidential threat to commit genocide. That’s relatively calm by Trump’s standards.
But then along comes Melania ‒ unexpectedly, unannounced and, for her husband, very unhelpful.
From behind a lectern at the White House,the first lady said: “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”
Ruh-roh.
The questionsher statementraised were numerous: Which lies? Who’s doing the lying? Why are you saying this now? What do you know that we don’t?
An additional question would be: “Uhhhhh, I can’t help but notice you’re distancing yourself from all things Epstein and proclaiming your innocence, but you’re not exactly distancing your husband or claiming he’s completely innocent. Care to elaborate?”
The presidentreportedly didn’t know his wife was bringing up the Epstein files. And again, nobody was really talking about the files … until she brought them up, for reasons that remain unclear.
Donald Trump has tried mightily to get everyone, including his MAGA base, tomove on from Epstein, ludicrously painting the scandal as old news. The last thing he wants is more of a spotlight on the case and Epstein’s victims.
So one can imagine Trump’s surprise whenhis wife stood before the cameras on April 9and said: “Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony. Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public, if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record.”
Oh my. Something tells me there’s trouble in the storybook romance of Donald and Melania.
